What was your life-changing moment of grace?
Feb. 25—Second Sunday of Lent
Readings: Genesis 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Psalm 116, R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.; Romans 8:31b-34; Gospel – Mark 9:2-10
One of the spiritual nuggets of wisdom my late spiritual director, Fr. Benny Calpotura, S.J., shared with me was his insight that life-changing moments of grace in our life are few and far between.
This is not so much an expression of scarcity, but a description of the richness and the superabundance of God’s grace.
Let us keep this in mind as the overall theme of our reflections this Sunday as we consider the story of the Transfiguration.
For our first point for reflection, we will revisit our life-changing moment of grace. Our second point is to retrace our journey in living out this grace and see the grace of affirmations. Then our final point is how all this bears fruit in love and service.
What was your life-changing moment of grace when you caught a glimpse of a vision of your life, a dream that you were willing to dedicate your life to, the mission that for you, in the thought of Fr. Hans Kung, is something to die for?
DNA of mission
I believe we all have this moment because we all have a DNA of mission from birth, why we were sent into this world.
For the Lord, this moment was in His baptism, when with clarity He understood His identity and mission as the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased.
We must appreciate that being fully human, the Lord, like us, slowly got to know and understand who He was and why He was sent into the world, His identity and mission.
This was His life-changing moment in His baptism, when He experienced this beatific vision. From here on, it was about fulfilling the will of His Father, living out His mission.
While the Transfiguration was to assure and strengthen His disciples that the mission will not end with death on the Cross but will be fulfilled in the glory of the Resurrection, it was also an assurance for Jesus.
Moses and Elijah appearing beside Him was an assurance for Jesus that He was on the right track. He was the continuity and fulfillment of the law and the prophets. He was then making his way to Jerusalem to fulfill His mission in the Paschal mystery.
Core affirmation
Like Jesus, we need these moments of assurance, reaffirming our core inspiration in the original life-changing moment of grace that set us on our journey and defined our mission.
Jesus, in my thinking and reflection, constantly experienced this affirmation in every moment of prayer, going off to a deserted place to pray, to be one with His Father in solitude and silence.
In the Transfiguration, both Jesus and His disciples received this affirmation, for His disciples, witnessing the Lord’s transfiguration made Peter exclaim, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here!”
For Jesus, the “repeat” of the beatific vision, this time made known to us through Peter, James and John, was likewise an affirmation. “This is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him.”
We all need moments of affirmation, in prayer, in finding God in our work. St. Ignatius of Loyola had this great gift of experiencing often in His work that “the finger of God is here.”
There is a story that when a new Pope was elected after the death of Pope Paul III, who approved the Society of Jesus, the news was brought to St. Ignatius in the Jesuit headquarters right beside the Vatican that the new Pope was Cardinal Carafa, an archenemy of the Jesuits.
According to those who were with him, St. Ignatius turned pale. He entered the chapel and after 15 minutes, he came out with a glow on his face and said he was sure the Society will continue.
Moments of affirmation come in many forms and through many ways. But all this is meant to strengthen us for mission.
In the Transfiguration, they all came down from the mountain and went into the world to bring and share the graces: to proclaim that Jesus is the Beloved Son to Whom we must listen.
All these lead us to find God in all things, and to the grace to love and to serve God in all things. In omnibus amare, in omnibus servire.
